For a while now, I have been struggling with a lower back injury that has been preventing me from training for a half marathon I am registered to run in Jackson Hole Wyoming with good company on a team call "Run Like the Winded".
This is honeslty one of the first times that I have had an injury that I haven't bounced back from in a week or 2. It has been on going to the point where I have been seeking Physical Therapy and undergoing weekly Dry Needling. I began to wonder if I would ever get better. I had been doing the excecises religiously as well as distracting myself from the pain and lack of doing my "normal" work out regimen with facebook and instagram like whoa. Sitting down once getting home and sometimes wasting up to 2 hours of my time surfing. Before I even realized I had spent 2 weeks maybe more of my time zoned out and trying to ignore things and people around me by trying to numb the idea that I was injured and I couldn't do what I enjoyed and I couldn't prepare for yet ANOTHER race.
Let's backtrack shall we?
For the record I have run 4 major races 3 half Marathons and 1 full marathon with high hopes of adding another one in June In a new state, Wyoming!
1. Lake Placid New York: I was running with a shin injury that I received after almost being attacked by a dog that jumped out and caused me to tweak my leg on an uneven sidewalk. I still finished! When you body does something for the first time, your body doesn't really understand or believe what you're making it do. It felt pretty miserable. the entire time. Completed the race at 75%.
2. Avenue of the Giants Half Marathon #1: I had spent time training and I felt really good up until 2 days before the race. In that time I began to get a scratchy throat and my nose closed up while my head pounded.
At 4:30am on Race day my head opened and everything began to drain and I ran the race hopped up on cold Meds... Body didn't mind as much because it had run that distance before. But my body was also distracted by the sickness that was within my upper torso. Completed the race at 50%3. Avenue of The Giants Half Marathon #2: Again spent a long period of time training, taking care of myself and resting to prevent injury and illness... Illness still came...
I ran with a terrible sinus infection that atleast stayed above my lungs and only caused mental disorientation and a good sense of zoning out from cold Meds. Still conqured but at only 60%.
4. Avenue of the Giants FULL Marathon: Months spent devoted to long runs, sprinting the last lap around the park loop because the sun was down and it creeped me out. Working multiple 12 to 14 hour days at work and basically running whenever I wasn't working. Stress levels ensued and I got one of the worst colds I have ever experienced. My boss reccommended I eat a peice of toast dowsed in minced garlic. It wasn't terrible when I at it before I went to bed the night before the race because I couldn't taste let alone feel the toast in my mouth because my head and lungs were packed with snot. Race morning per usual I popped heavy Cold Meds and ran at 40%.
Through all of this the clear answer is NO. God doesn't want me to give up running but to simply refocus my attention to his strength over and over and over again.
From a completely different perspective I see each of these races as God's protection and presence in my life. Running these races in my own strength I would have been passed out at the start line as the germs and injuries pounded my self confidence. I need to remind myself that in 3 of these 4 races I heard God telling me to run not for my glory but for His.
This is the same thing that I am hearing for this quickly approaching race June 4th in Jackson Hole. I haven't run in over a month now and yet I can audibly hear God saying, "you will". It is a constant battle in my heart and mind against the enemy as I feel this continual dull pain in my lower back and hip. But refocusing as well as deleting facebook and Instagram from my phone has helped in loads of different ways. Mainly braking my trances and looking forward to what I can be doing attitude wise and leaning wise upon the Lord to bring me through this season.
He craves my attention and I have been holding back. I want to seek His glory and let Him be known among many. I want His strength to soak me to the bone and beyond to that His temple that is my body maybe glorifying to Him, ALWAYS.
"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize".-1 Corinthians 9:24
-Keep Adventuring.
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